Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Erophila verna
Whitlow grass
Brassicaceae
Open woodland, pastures, and moist situations. Tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park. Occasionally elsewhere.
Introduced annual herb to 0.2 m high, base and rhizome woody. Stems sparsely or densely clothed in simple, branched or stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves in a basal rosette, 0.2–2 cm long, margins entire or with a few shallow teeth. Flowering stem leafless. Flowers with 4 notched petals each 1.5–4 mm long, white or pink. Flowers in clusters.
subsp. verna: Hairs on stems and leaves always branched; seed cases 6–10 mm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, more than 2.5 times as long as broad, often with almost parallel sides
subsp. praecox: Hairs on stems and leaves mixed branched and unbranched; seed cases 3–10 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, less than 3 times as long as broad, sides always rounded
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Erophila~verna (accessed 14 January, 2021)
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